Should You Write a Book?

After I wrote my first book, I started suggesting people I met that they should write a book.

I figured anyone who liked writing, wrote reasonably well and had a decent level of expertise in one or more things, could write a book.

Such suggestions were based on the fact that my book had helped open gates of opportunities for me, and I figured it would do the same for anyone who did that. I still believe that a book is a great showcase of your expertise.

Since I started working as a book writing coach over the past couple of years, I figured not everyone is ready to write a book. Maybe they can write a blog post, but a book? No.

Why?

Because readers read a blog post for free and if they don’t like something you wrote, you can go back to edit it. But people pay for a book and they want a good ROI on their money and time that they spend on buying and reading your book.

They don’t care much if a blog post sucks. But if your book is bad, rushed or offers padded info – readers are free to post a poor review, which also opens you to a bigger pool of criticism.

If you take time and put in the effort to write a book, then you don’t need to worry about criticism. But if you are in a rush and just want to get it done with, then better don’t write a book. It is like throwing yourself in the middle of the road with running traffic without looking at the red light.

Only write a book, if you have something to say which you won’t be able to say in 5-10 blog posts and if you want to create a legacy and make yourself known to the wider world. Do it if you are willing to put in 100s of hours, over a period of 6-8 months or even longer to write the best book you can, and then to edit in multiple times so that readers find it coherent and enjoyable.